Latest leaks by NSA whistleblower reveal NSA’s global reach

EU countries might be formally outraged at the US bugging of EU officials both in America and Europe and NSA’s phone surveillance in general, but as news outlets continue to leak Edward Snowden’s document trove, the protesting sounds a bit hollow.

The French Le Monde revealed (via Google Translate) that French citizens’ communications’ metadata is just as thoroughly recorded, is shared with a number of French agencies, and is basically illegal.

And according to an interview with Snowden published in Der Spiegel, German authorities are involved in the NSA surveillance system.

He also stated that other countries such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are also helping, as well as private companies (“telecom collaborators”) that he says are the jewels in NSA’s “crown of omniscience”. A recent article by The Washington Post explains how this partnership between the US government agencies and private firms came about.

In the meantime, Brazilian newspaper Globo also revealed (via Google Translate) details about NSA’s long-standing spying of communications originating from Brazil and other Latin American countries, in search for military but also trade secrets.

Those revelations, paired with the recent forced landing of Bolivia’s president Evo Morales’ plane in Vienna due to suspicions that it was also carrying Snowden to Latin America, have likely pushed Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua to offer the whistleblower asylum. The latest but yet unconfirmed news is that he accepted Venezuela’s offer.